BURIED TREASURER

Treasurer would be a forgettable state office if it
did not spit out a governor now and then.

Otherwise, treasurer could be lumped in with auditor
and insurance commissioner, the other green-eyeshade
officers in Delaware's statewide lineup.

They are elected to spend four years in jobs that
sound duller than a dial tone.

Treasurer, however, has a dash of political panache
to set it off from the others because of Jack Markell
and Tom Carper. The office was the proving ground that
sent Markell onward to be the Democratic governor and
Carper to be the Democratic congressman, governor and
now senator.

It could account for why three people are running for
treasurer this year. The salary of $107,000 a year
probably does not hurt, either, not in this economy.

The Republicans appear to be settling on Colin Bonini,
a state senator from a Dover area district. He is in the
middle of a four-year term and does not have to resign
to run.

The Democrats look like they are heading for a
primary between Velda Jones-Potter, the current
treasurer appointed by Markell to finish out his term,
and Chip Flowers, a lawyer.

The office is the Democrats to lose, but it could
happen, despite what has been an unstoppable winning
streak that has brought them seven of the nine statewide
offices.

Not only do the Democrats have a primary, they have
candidates who have not run for office before and are
largely self-financing so far. Going into the election
year, Flowers loaned his campaign $56,000, and
Jones-Potter loaned hers $55,000.

By contrast, Bonini is an experienced politician who
has been part of the state Senate since 1994. He is not
self-financing. He collected more than $100,000 in
contributions, split between his campaign account and
his Responsible Delaware PAC.

Bonini's timing looks good, too, with his fellow
Republicans energized by the candidacies of Mike Castle
for senator and probably Michele Rollins for the
congressional seat Castle is leaving behind.

The treasurer's office is something of a Rorschach
test for the candidates. They all see something
different for themselves in a job that is essentially
the state's bookkeeper, collecting money, writing checks
and balancing the accounts with a workforce of 24
people.

Bonini looks at himself as treasurer and sees a
taxpayers' advocate, championing the catchphrase, "It's
the spending, stupid!"

Bonini promises to make the office a bully pulpit to
stand fast against wasteful spending and excessive
taxes. His latest crusade is the mileage money that
legislators get for driving roundtrip to Legislative
Hall in Dover. The rate is 40 cents a mile. Bonini
announced this week he will refuse his own
reimbursement.

"As you can imagine, I'm very popular with my
colleagues," Bonini quipped.

This would be more impressive if Bonini did not
happen to live a mere seven miles away.

It would also be more impressive if it involved a
bigger budget item. In a $3 billion state budget, the
Senate was allotted $42,000 for mileage and the House of
Representatives $70,000, but even those numbers are
actually inflated over reality.

There is so little money spent on mileage, the House
is still working from its appropriation from last year
and the Senate from its appropriation from two years
ago. Nothing in the General Assembly is ever what it
seems.

Flowers looks at himself as treasurer and sees a
shadow governor.

He has a nine-page manifesto that has the office
bursting beyond its bookkeeping into economic and fiscal
policy, gobbling functions and personnel from the
Finance Department, Delaware Economic Development Office
and DEFAC, the Delaware Economic & Financial Advisory
Council, which projects state revenues.

In an age of government austerity, a proposal to
supercharge an office sounds anomalous, but Flowers says
it is not the case.

"Having a small treasurer's office has actually hurt
the state," Flowers said.

Jones-Potter looks at herself as treasurer and sees,
actually, a treasurer.

Maybe it is her financial background. She worked for
MBNA and DuPont, which also detached her through its
executive loaner program to be the finance director for
Wilmington.

"I don't think either of them really wants to be
treasurer," Jones-Potter said.

She promises to focus on cost-saving efficiencies and
also public transparency. There could be something to
the transparency.

The Web site for the treasurer's office lists the
name, role and telephone number of everyone there. For
contrast, try searching for a listing for Tony DeLuca,
the state Senate's Democratic president pro tem, at his
day job with the Labor Department.

Stop the mouse clicks when DeLuca's name turns up or
carpal tunnel sets in, whichever is first.